Dear Thomas B. Riley Families,

We are so grateful to all of our students that have helped us to create a welcoming, caring, safe and respectful learning environment in our first two weeks of school. We have received an abundance of positive feedback from our students and families that school start up has been a success and students are overall feeling positive and successful at school. Thank you for your ongoing support to ensure this is the best year yet!

Updating Demographic Information – Due Sept 18

You will have received an email from CBE regarding updating your child’s demographic information in Powerschool. These forms used to be completed via paper copies and now are required to be completed annually online. All parents must review, complete or update their child’s forms through Powerschool by clicking on the School Engage tab. Please complete this by the deadline of Monday September 18, 2023

Weekly Communication from Grade Teams

We hope you are enjoying the weekly updates from all grade teams this year. We know that in middle school students are not always forthcoming about their learning each week. Our hope is that these message offer a bridge of communication for you to open a conversation with your child about their learning and the many exciting things happening in the classroom each week. Starting this Friday these emails will be forwarded from our main office email. We ask that parents do not reply to weekly grade team messages directly but that instead you use our Staff page on our website to find the email for your child’s teacher so you are able to communicate with the teachers directly.

Field Trip Volunteers Needed

We are excited to announce that we have many exciting field trips coming up in all Grades this year, however we are not able to do these without your help! If you are available to volunteer with us at any point in the year, it is required that a mandatory Police Information Check is completed. Please follow the process below to ensure your PIC is up to date so that we are able to provide these valuable learning experiences for our students.

Volunteer Security Clearance Process

Step 1: Prospective volunteers must first register as a volunteer at the school office where you plan on volunteering. School administrators will verify your identity and register you in the CBE volunteer database. The school office will provide you with a letter enabling you to obtain a police information check from the Calgary Police Service (CPS). Please note, prospective volunteers must reside in Canada for a full year before registering. Police clearances from countries other than Canada are not accepted.

Step 2: Visit the CPS online system, electronic Police Information Check (ePIC), to obtain your police check using your CBE volunteer letter. If you are unable to complete the process online, you may visit a police information check location instead.

Step 3: Once you have received your clearance document from CPS you will need to share it with the school in-person or by email.

Cost Your security clearance is valid for five years and the cost is $21.25 ($15.00 for police clearance and 5.95+GST service fee) which is charged during the online ePIC application. This fee is not covered by the CBE.

Annual Volunteer Registration: Each school year you must complete the CBE volunteer registration form. By completing the form, you agree to abide by the conditions that protect the safety, confidentiality and working environment of our schools. You also make a signed declaration with regard to criminal charges.

• Annual Volunteer Registration Form - please print and return to the school if you would like to volunteer for the 2023-24 school year.

• Volunteer | Administrative Regulation 5003

 

Attendance

If your child will be away from school please contact the main office by leaving either leaving a voicemail or emailing thomasbriley@cbe.ab.ca with your child’s first and last name, grade, and homeroom. You will receive attendance notifications if your child is late or absent for any period through powerschool.

 

Fiscal Update

The school has not received as many incoming students as anticipated this Fall. As a result we have had to make the difficult decision not to fill a vacant 0.5 teaching position in our options classes. Our priority in staffing decisions is to minimize overall disruption to students, so we chose not to collapse any core classes in Humanities or Math/Science. Instead there will be some impact to some options classes on Day A only. For some students it will mean their Foods option will be taught by a different teacher, and most of our Drama classes will need to be offered in the second term. In addition we have had to reorganize options classes so some students will have changes to their original options courses beginning on Monday, which was communicated to them last week. Again, the purpose and intent of this impact is to ensure that class sizes stay smaller in core classes and that grade groupings in these subjects were not impacted.

 

Though this impact in option changes is unavoidable this term, each student will have an opportunity to provide input and rank their option choices for Term Two later this term. We ask for flexibility and understanding in that we not able to offer any additional option changes for Term One, and will prioritize choice based on availability in each block in the second term. Our main priority was to ensure no student had the same option twice this term and that the options won’t be repeated in the second term. If for some reason your child did end up with the same option twice, please email the main office to let us know and we will make those adjustments.

 

Sports Updates:

Boys Soccer: A second tryout for the Boys Soccer team will be held on Tuesday September 12th from 2:45 – 3:45. Please come with appropriate footwear for the conditions and shin guards.  Meet Mr. Fernandes and Mr. Haseltine on the back field. Students should arrange for parents to pick them up from school by 4:00 pm.

 

Cross Country Running –

·       Monday September 11^th: First cross country practice is after school from 2:40 pm – 3:50 pm. Students should arrange for parents to pick them up from school by 4:00 pm.

·       Wednesday September 13^th: The first cross country meet will take place at Annie Gale School. All members of the cross country team must arrive by 4:15 pm at the latest. The meet starts at 4:40 pm. Students are responsible for arranging their own transportation to and from the meet.

 

Basketball: Tryouts will take place this week. Girls basketball tryouts are Tuesday and Thursday at 2:45-4:00pm and Boys basketball tryouts are Monday and Wednesday from 2:45-4:00pm. Please ensure all students are picked up no later than 4pm.

 

 

Other Upcoming Dates:

Thursday September 21: TBR Open House for all Families (Meet the Teacher Night) from 5:30pm-7:30pm

Wednesday September 27: School Council Meeting at 6:00pm in the Learning Commons (in person)

Friday September 29: No School; National Day for Truth and Reconcilliation

 

Have a wonderful week!

 

Sincerely,

 

Tiffany Austin

Principal, Thomas B. Riley School

taaustin@cbe.ab.ca